Відео

"Because those specific problems had known solutions, because Gary and Dave had played a bunch of board games and miniatures war-games they had already solved the ways that were satisfactory to them about how to resolve these issues." The idea that the rules that the guys in the 1970s deemed worthy of codifying were such because they had already been solved but that later solving of problems by subsequent gamers (things like skill systems started to show up as early as the 80's, as I'm sure you know) really speaks to the revisionism and romanticism of the OSR of recent years (I was a fan of the OSR stuff in its early days). The ridiculous extreme of an example of throwing a rock down a well or "search rules every time a player checks a room" or constantly asking for ability score checks exaggerates and assumes what some more recent games actually expect. People basically stopped reading DMGs after the year 2000 and its a shame because, especially in 3rd edition (the most misunderstood of them all), the DMG is actually very heavy handed about a lot of the stuff that the OSR preaches. Skill checks can *aid* in your chances of doing something AFTER you've already explained what you're doing and how you're doing it. Some people like the actual game part of the game rather than everything being make believe outside of spell casting, AC, hit points and movement rates. I like dungeon crawling, and dungeon crawling can be super rewarding when its based in various rules that engage with each other and a procedural approach. Engaging with rules systems and seeing the results unfold at the table, especially as they relate to your character can be super interesting, exciting, weird and makes for great immersion. AD&D 1e is one of my favorite games, and I really appreciate some OSR games, I've been playing for long time, but the OSR narrative, rules-light stuff, the revisionism, the fetish of re-enacting a certain period of time in a way that we mostly only imagine a handful of people (who are lucky enough to have been documented) played is misdirected and its out of control lately. Hell, the original west marches game (a play style that many OSR, rules-light, open table, sandbox etc. people hold in high esteem) was done in 3rd edition, and that original DM makes it a point to praise the mechanics and strengths of the 3.0 ruleset for enabling that game to be as successful as it was. Sometime in the mid-2000's the unfortunately WotC message boards and crazy min-maxers became the loudest voice and ended up driving the entire direction of the industry for the following two decades (WotC over pivoting with 4e to be as far away as the late 3.5 style as they could, the OSR emerging out of a reaction against late 3.5 era play), but really the majority of people playing late 2, 3.0, 3.5 etc were just having a grand old time playing normal fantasy campaigns at home and enjoying the strong rulesets.

Keep old school content alive! /sub

Great advices and video! Excellent recap at the end, inspiring! What is your top 3 of Fantasy Sandbox RPG Campaigns?

For me, the only struggle is with how easy it is for player characters to get killed. They don't get enough hit points at Level 1 to make it very far. That being said, the beauty of OSR games is that (at least when it comes to White Box FMAG) they're ridiculously easy to homebrew new rules and content for.

I find your comparison to 4e interesting. That's kind of the version that brought me back around to OSR. Basically for my D&D path I dabbled in AD&D2e then really played in 3.5 and then DMed in 4e, played but didn't really like 5e, played OSE, DMed a srtipped down OSE like version of 4e and now am on to castle and crusades. Once I got good enough to understand how 4e worked I was able to strip away more and more of the rails. Like how the level bonus serves no purpose other than to help the DM figure out what monsters to throw at the party. On the other side the class powers help players figure out what they can do with their actions instead of just attack, attack, move, attack. I still have a soft spot for 4e (obviously) but I can say it's a D&D trainer without condescension. For gamers new to D&D I think it can be a good spot to start off from. Not everyone does well from being thrown into the deepend of the pool. Maybe they're not used to using their imagination in that way. But yeah, open world is definitely moer fun and actually easier to run as DM once you have all the skills and tools in place.

A truly phenomenal video, wise wizard. I've been a sandbox enthusiast for years, but this video created an excellent checklist that even I can utilize to more quickly cover my bases.

Great tips would love so see some oldschool examples of this as well.

More of this! Show us your notebooks and past campaigns! Fantastic-

Huh, I already was doing something like this but never had a good way to put it into words. It's just something my dm did and I picked up on

i loved 4e beacuse all i needed was a solid closed system, and then the players and GM could do whatever they want with the open stuff

Glad I found you! Enjoying your videos which I find very valuable.

So if I'm not mistaken, what you mean by "open system" is relying on things beyond "just roll a skill check"? I played Basic D&D in 1991 and 1e AD&D before going to 2e and then 3.x, and I'm looking at various OSR rules but thus far haven't found any that really appeal (just reminding me of the stuff I didn't like, like how cheap character survivability is). But one thing I like about OSR compared to say 5e or Pathfinder is the lack of "Make me an X check" rules, instead being more of a "Okay that sounds good" from the DM, although I can see some reasons why the DM would ask for a skill check (bluffing a guard, for example, although in this case the CHA check wouldn't be to see if it worked, but if the guard realizes he's been tricked before the PC can get away)

FYI, your blog comes up "Failed to open page" on both Safari and Chrome. Maybe it's just me but you might want to check into it if your number of visitors is lower than usual.

MY GOD! That BEARD!!!... I want it

What you call open system is the reason for me to play and run RPGs. Otherwise I would be playing Board Games or Video Games.

If you think of it as "running" a game, you'll probably get a lot of closed-system results.

They say that if you truly understand a concept, you can explain it simply. You clearly don't understand the concepts you're trying to discuss.

You are a positive force man! I hope to see you at another Gamehole Con in October.

Enjoyed the video. I thought your definition of your 'audience', a great one. Building relationships. Friendships. That's the currency I prefer myself. Best of luck!

This was really helpful information! I am staring to get a grasp on what OSR really means and should feel like.

I've been watching the odd video here and there, but this video really got me feeling this is a channel to follow. Being more about the positive than the negative. Focus on Contributing and growing the "big pot of creativity" that I think Michael Moorcock called it. Not to mention the idea that "The people I want to find are out there, we just haven't connected yet." is a huge one! (Not to mention that Classical Fantasy/S&S fiction, Metal music and some History makes for great ingredients!)

holy shit you look like a guy that plays OSR games. fully a compliment. that bear is magnificent.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us, grumpy wizard.

Just subscribed. Good stuff. I have the same opinion about developing a sandbox. Looking forward to your other videos.

Congrats on having committed players! Holy cow 10 sessions to get out of the intro? I’ve never had a campaign last more than 7 sessions just due to scheduling and real life. How often are you playing/scheduling games a month? Love the advice but seems unrealistic.

Glad I got this in my feed. I've been running sandbox campaigns exclusively for over a decade now and I HARD agree on pretty much everything you said. DMing is my preferred role, and much of my spare time is spent writing campaign cores, making up NPCs, magic items, monsters, spells and abilities. Many of those end up filtering into the sandboxes over the years, and it all creates such a deep persistent world that grows into its own personality. Player direction though is really the driving force, and you hit the nail on the head by saying that they will more actively pursue their own goals. Subbed!

I love your emphasis on pragmatic advice for realistic situations, instead of a highly marketable, can-do attitude.

Player annoyances. I love it! Nothing drives player investment more. Have a like and a sub, sir.

*CHA'ALT*

Nice: succinct, to the point. Not a wasted word.

your advice is gold! I love your blog and your article "your story sucks".

How do you tend to solicit player goals and objectives? At the table during session? At the end of a session? In between sessions? I’m curious how that tends to work out for you.

This is just what the doctor ordered. Thanks for this video man

Excellent advice! Thank you for the video. I've recently started DMing Shadowdark and it's been a ton of fun, but a bit of an adjustment coming from modern systems like 5e, Monster of the Week, Cyberpunk, etc. This was the advice I needed to fully get my head around it.

I like the refrain best: player-driven adventure objectives.

Whatever happened to the D23 challenge? Tweleve levels of dungeons crawling certainly seems like a good basis for a sandbox. It's great to see you back btw, 12:38 I've had two campains go right up to 36th level, Mentzer basic rules. It does happen when you have no life.

Awesome video and advice Travis. One takeaway from this video is the concept of working with “pieces” in a sandbox. Clues, events, encounters, monsters, NPCs, objects, etc. that when put together, create a larger, clearer, picture. I experienced some of this with your Hogwater sessions and it is a fantastic way to weave depth and meaning into a sandbox over multiple sessions. Keep up the great work.

I've just started building a sandbox and i must say, of all the content on the web, yours inspired me the most, I ended up reading all your blog. I sincerely hope you keep doing what you do, it's insightfull, well formulated, concise, and it's so amazing after watching dozens of videos of people juggling words without ever defining terms and making broad statements. Your approach is really conceptual and made me realise tons of stuff so fast ! I also relate to you on a personnal level, as someone that feels crippled by adhd and social anxiety you're really inspiring. Watching your first video I could feel that making video content wasn't naturally coming to you, that you had to fight yourself ! Thats inspiring too! Anyway, Good luck and thank you ! (Sorry for bad english)

Very cool and useful stuff

That's a really cool perspective! This kind of long term view to sandbox campaigns is rarely discussed. Very insightful!

Hey, hey! Welcome back! :D You've been missed.

This is literally what I needed to hear. I was struggling trying to figure out how to run an old school version of D&D like they ran it back in the 70s. Hearing they had rules for combat because they knew how other games ran combat made so much sense to me. Everything else they were just making up on the fly. Your explanation on how they made it up and how I can too was eye opening. Thanks for the vid! S tier beard!

Very eye-opening. Thank you!

This is good stuff! What I'd like to see more about, is improvising encounters based on the adventure and sandbox setting prep. Or rather how to prep adventures and the sandbox with improvising encounters in mind. What kind of tools you would recommend to have at the table for this for example? Thanks again!

Fantastic advice! Thank you!

Quite right. This creates a need for a high level of trust between the referee and the players. Some players want the closed system to "protect" them from GMs they do not trust, but that isn't actually possible.

In short. If you play an ancient game without the 45 years of evolution of game design that we achieved, be ready to make shit up.

This is GREAT!!!!! Some of this might be familiar to old hands, but I feel it's presented here with enough depth and breadth to push players and DMs a little bit further. Also, it's nice to see a video that gets right to the point without bunch of extra BS! Very well done!